Do you feel exhausted at work?

Do you feel increasingly distanced from or negative about your job?

Are you noticing reduced quality in your work output?

Then you may be experiencing burnout, a legitimate medical condition related to the workplace. In August 2020, 58% of US workers identified themselves as experiencing burnout, up from 45% at the beginning of the pandemic. This issue is damaging workers’ physical and mental health as well as productivity and innovation in the workplace. It’s especially problematic on the frontline, where employees have significantly less control over their day-to-day work experience. Unfortunately, fixing burnout isn’t as simple as taking up meditation or getting more sleep. That’s because burnout is a workplace problem, not a worker problem, and requires changes to the systems and processes that guide how work is done. 

JD speaks with Jennifer Moss to learn what organizations can do to protect their frontline teams from burnout. Jennifer is an award-winning journalist, author, public speaker and nationally syndicated radio columnist who researches topics related to happiness and workplace well-being.  To acknowledge her contributions to business and public service, Jennifer was named a Canadian Innovator of the Year, an International Female Entrepreneur of the Year, and recipient of the Public Service Award from the Office of President Obama. 

The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It by Jennifer Moss publishes on September 28, 2021.

Learn More About Preventing Burnout:

• Beyond Burned Out (HBR)
• Burnout Is About Your Workplace, Not Your People (HBR)
• Preventing Burnout Is About Empathetic Leadership (HBR) 
• How the Pandemic Exacerbated Burnout (HBR)
• 6 Causes of Burnout and How to Avoid Them (HBR)
• Burnout is an official medical diagnoses, World Health Organization says (CNN)
• How to Not Let Pandemic Fatigue Turn Into Pandemic Burnout (Everyday Health)
• 3 strategies to fight burnout and foster engagement in frontline grocery associates (Axonify)
• 35 more WFH practices (LearnGeek)

If you have a frontline story you’d like us to explore on a future episode, let us know at [email protected]

The 80 Percent is brought to you by Axonify. To learn how you can provide communication and training to your frontline workforce that actually works, visit axonify.com.

Join the #FrontlineForward effort by visiting axonify.com/frontlineforward to access free training content, download the 2020 State of Frontline Employee Training Report and subscribe for the updates.